The Jewish calendar is lunisolar. The years are counted according to the Earth’s rotation around the Sun, while the Moon's motions are taken into account when determining the months.

On 10 September 2018 (according to the Jewish calendar, on the 1st of Tishrei), the 5779th Jewish year began. This is a conventional calculation based on biblical history. Its starting point is the creation of the world and, more specifically, the day on which Adam and Eve were created. The Bible does not give any dates, but often there is information on how long a given person lived or how old they were when they became a parent. This provided the basis for the estimated calculations of the years.

An interesting fact is that the month of Tishrei, in which the Rosh Hashanah festival is celebrated (literally meaning the "head of the year"), is not the first month in the Jewish calendar at all. Months are not named in the Torah (their names appear later), but they are numbered and the spring month of Nisan is described as the first, while Tishrei is the seventh month.

In the Jewish calendar, months are measured according to the cycles of the Moon and last 29 or 30 days. The birth of a new moon (Rosh Chodesh – literally the "head of the month") has the status of a half-holiday and is accompanied by additional prayers. The full moon always falls on the middle of the month.

The czuha played a special role in the outfit of the Lemkos: it symbolised wealth and prestige. The czuha was obligatorily worn to Orthodox church, on more important festivals — even in the summer, as well as for weddings (even if one had to borrow it). It was a kind of a voluminous coat made of brown domestic cloth, which for other Lemkos was indicative of its owner’s origin.

The group portrait of the Galician Jews belongs to the late works by Piotr Michałowski (1800—1855). It was created in a time when the artist — treating painting as a hobby — managed the estate in Bolestraszyce near Przemyśl. This painting, being actually an oil study, is similar in character to the 17^th-century Dutch portraits. From the dark, abstract space busts of five Jews emerge.

In the extensive exhibition devoted to the history and culture of the Romani/Gypsies, the exhibits particularly attracting the attention of visitors are the colourful wagons presented in the courtyard of the Ethnographic Museum. Preserved in the Polish landscape in the 1^st half of the 20^th century as well as in Polish pop culture thanks to the song by Maryla Rodowicz, they make an interesting memento of the vagabond, truly “Gypsy life”.

The Talmud is the most important compilation of the oral Torah,  that was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is a commentary, an explanation, and a discussion. Before the Talmud, there was the Mishnah, to which Talmud is an extension.
There are two Talmuds—the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud—whose 1831 edition is presented in our collection. The process of editing the former was completed in the 4th century AD in Palestine, in the academies of Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Tiberias. The latter was completed a little later, at the beginning of the 6th century AD in Babylonia, in the academies of Sura, Nehardea, and Pumbedita. It is far more extensive than the Jerusalem Talmud.

This is a domestic wall clock with a pendulum, having an escapement with a drive and a signalling mechanism chiming the hours. It is also equipped with a weight drive. The whole mechanism is placed in a wooden casing with a bell and a hammer at the top.

The turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries was a period of increased travel around the world for various purposes: exploration, research, and pure tourism. Various objects were brought back from these journeys, among which were both works of art of a specific culture, nation, or social group, as well as various utilitarian objects and souvenirs.

The cover in the form of an elongated rectangle was hand-sewn of a fabric with a tiny geometrical and floral design. On the obverse, in the cartouche, taking on the form of a laurel wreath, there is an embroidered donative inscription which reads:

זנ | אשה צנועה | מרת הינדא ז”ל |
בת הרב המ הג’ | מ’ שמואל כץ שנ’ | תעג לפק

This unusual Hanukkah lamp was set on a wooden base, in the middle of which there is a small wall made of two planks, reinforced with another plank and a metal plaque on the back. To the front of the wall, a cast-iron chandelier is fixed.

A Jewish book belonging to a Chevra Kadisha funeral fraternity. It is a prayer book of the Ashkenazi rite (Nusach Ashkenaz). The Hebrew title of the book is Sidur Safa Berura ha-Shalom.